1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method for extracting each element, such as a character (text) or a photograph, from image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a technique for extracting an element of image data, such as a text or a photograph, from image data, International Publication WO 2006/066325 discusses a method for dividing an input image into a plurality of blocks and executing color replacement on each block.
In the divided image, the brightness and the color tone may gradually change over a plurality of blocks (i.e., gradation may exist over a plurality of blocks).
In the method discussed in International Publication WO 2006/066325, because this method executes color replacement processing on each divided block, the color of image data may sharply change if a continuous gradation exists across a boundary between blocks.